


white lights are too bright (i just wanna see a trace or an outline)

by humanveil



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), New Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Bittersweet, M/M, New Avengers: Illuminati Vol 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 15:42:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14475900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanveil/pseuds/humanveil
Summary: It’s not a traditional kind of comfort, but it’s all they have.





	white lights are too bright (i just wanna see a trace or an outline)

**Author's Note:**

> Set around New Avengers: Illuminati Vol 2 #4, because that page at the end that shows Tony and Stephen all alone makes me feel things. Title taken from Mirrors by PVRIS.

The knock is a formality more than it’s anything else. Tony knows Strange can likely feel him—his aura, his energy. It’s just what Strange does.

It’s not long before he’s looking at Stephen, the man’s shoulder pressed against the doorframe, his face lined with traces of exhaustion, his eyes tired. The loneliness, the melancholy a feature that’s covert in the both of them. Subtle and delicate and rarely acknowledged with any sincerity.

Stephen doesn’t ask why he’s there. It’s a stupid question—one that has no coherent answer, only the whispered words of Xavier’s suggestion and a hollow, sinking feeling in the pit of Tony’s stomach. Instead, he steps aside, allows Tony to enter the darkness of the sanctum; a gentle, bluish light streaming in from the window and casting them in shadows, until all that’s left of each other is an outline they can morph into whatever illusion they wish to live out tonight.

To reach forward and grab each other, to run hands under cloth and across flesh, to lean in and blend as one—it’s easy. Natural. Tony doesn’t mention Clea or the Dark Dimension, doesn’t mention the operation with Noh-Varr, doesn’t mention the meetings scheduled in the upcoming days. Here, now, is a place void of work. Is somewhere he can relish in the feel of Stephen’s body, in the warmth of his touch, the press of his mouth. Is somewhere loneliness and responsibility can fade away and be replaced by something else. Something _better._

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/irnstrk) / [tumblr](http://humanveil.tumblr.com/)


End file.
